A place for me to geek out and talk about stuff no one really wants to read about, like all my crazy theories about Lost, my Tolkien geekiness, my interest in MMORPGs and whatever else comes to mind.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

BSG: The end

Well, I finally caught up to the ending of this show and watched its grand finale. It's quite a different experience watching a show straight through, rather than waiting for an episode a week! Hard to say how it affects your perception of the storyline and the characters, though I think it may sharpen your intolerance to continuity errors, plot holes and characters acting out of character. But I'm not sure really. I just know its a whole lot less frustrating when you don't have to wait 6 months or longer for a new season to start!

Anyway. The finale. And all that leads up to it. But mainly the finale. What to say? The phrase "mixed feelings" sums it up for me, kind of like it has for the entire show. Parts of the finale were brilliant, funny, gut-churning and heart-wrenching. And some of it felt just plain lame.

My main disappointment I think was the payoff to the visions in the Opera house. It was extremely cool to see Athena and Roslin chase Hera through Galactica, and seeing that blend into the Opera house, and then in the CIC with the Final Five on the "balcony". That gave me shivers and was awesome. BUT. The fact that ALL Baltar and Six did was to take Hera for 2 minutes... well, that sucked. After all the visions and the "she's our child Gaius!" and the glowy light in the doorway as Six walked through with Baltar and Hera I felt cheated. I've read that tptb originally planned to let Athena and Helo die, and then have Baltar and Caprica raise Hera. That would have been sad, but it would have made more sense and given a bigger payoff imo. Chickening out did not help the story there.

And then Kara. Yea, I get it: she really was an angel. But wtf with her bodies and deaths and whatever? I guess the only answer is "God did it!"... which is a cop-out imo. But there you go. Did she die once when Apollo saw her ship explode, and then again on Earth? And how nice of god to furnish her with a new ship!

And the little final scene with the robots and the "will it happen again?"... eh... dancing robots do not a cylon make.

Even worse was the fleet giving up all technology. WHAT!? Giving up medical science and houses and toilet paper and toothpaste and clean clothes to avoid "repeating the cycle"? I call bullshit. The whole "let's all just live in peace and harmony in utter poverty and famine!" was total crap. Living like a cave man is NOT romantic and nice and cozy. Their lives certainly went to nasty, brutal and short I guess. Good idea Apollo... Chief's idea to live all by himself on some continent was even more laugh-worthy. Yeah, I know he's all depressed over acting like a moron and then killing Tory, but living ALL ALONE without technology? So not a good idea.

The best arc was Roslin's, but then I love her. She died, and Adama slipped his ring on her finger, just as he had in her vision. Amazing character and amazing acting. Her scene during the mutiny, when she reacted to Zarek's request for her to surrender "down to my eye teeth!" was gold. I thought Adama might have chosen to join her in death, but I guess he finally wanted to build that cabin.

Anders' story with him turning into a hybrid was inspired, but then they shoot him into the sun? Thanks Sam! Now go kill yourself, alright, we're getting rid of technology so you can't stay around! Bah.

I was sad to see the wonderful reborn Ellen and the always outstanding Saul Tigh drowned in the soapy cylon-baby plot at the end of the season. Tigh loved Six? Since when? It was a painful, superfluous plotline. They could have told us cylons couldn't have babies some other way. Still love Tigh though. "Not too late to flush them all out the airlock!" LOL. And Ellen was SO much better as the intelligent, compassionate woman she was resurrected as. I wanted more of that, less strip club.

What I liked:I actually DID like the first hour of fighting in the Colony. Good fx, spectacular scenes, some kickass stuff. Loved seeing the centurions fighting each other.

I loved Baltar's arc almost as much as Roslin's. Also, his flashbacks to Caprica were the only ones with a real payoff to me: when he said "I know about farming", and almost cried, I almost cried too because we had seen his dad. It would have been perfect if he and Caprica had taken care of Hera, but there you go, there was no real perfection to be had.

Someone shooting Boomer! YAY! Fickle fickle fickle cylon. And Chief reduced to a total doofus. I wish he could have had a better ending, but at least Calley's deat was avenged. The way they handled the Nicky situation was abominable though: Chief gives the kid up and that was it! So easy to get rid of your illegitimate 3 yeard old! Poor Nicky.

What I hated and what made me LOL:Cavill's "HELLO? HELLO?" as he grabbed the phone ine the CIC cracked me up for some reason. Who was he talking to? Himself? The hybrid? Who? Just random LOL'ness.

Apollo and Kara's almost-fornicating on the kitchen table. Thanks show for reminding me why I hated these characters so much in previous seasons! I actually liked Apollo a lot better in a suit rather than a uniform and AWAY from the silliness with the Kara-stuff. It never worked for me. IMO, had the show made them brother and sister, it would have been lightyears better. Keep the anatgonism and the camraderie, but lose all the googly eyes and lovemaking that made me want to retch.

All in all, I liked this show a lot and I loved some of the characters a lot more than I loved the show: Roslin, Tigh, Baltar, Zarek... Sam Anders too. Even Gaeta. But it was an uneven show, filled with unnecessary soapiness and badly wrapped up storylines which made viewing frustrating at times. Good, but not great, though the parts sometimes achieved a greatness the whole never did.

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SAWYER: Tell me something, Jacob. Why do I gotta be punished for your mistake? What made you think you could mess with my life? I was doin’ just fine til you dragged my ass to this damn rock.

JACOB: No, you weren’t. None of you were. I didn’t pluck any of you out of a happy existence. You were all flawed. I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn’t find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.

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About Me

I'm a writer and certified translator with two kids, a husband, two guinea pigs, and a very big dog. I was born and grew up in
Sweden, but since the early 1990s I live just outside Vancouver on
Canada's west coast. I write fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and my English language fiction-debut Odin's Eye is now available as an ebook and in paperback.

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